It's quickly becoming an Android world, at least in the smartphone sector. So much so that the open source OS is attracting brands that have been mostly content to stay away from the hardware side of things. Enter Alcatel, who appears to have stolen a page from the Palm Pre with its new OT-980 slider phone, but unlike the Pre, this one's all Android.

Alcatel will try its hardest to undercut the competition, and specifically to come in lower than HTC's low-cost Tattoo. That means there's no chance of a 1GHz Snapdragon processor breathing fire into the 980, but it will come with a 600MHz chip and 192MB of RAM. The 980 will also boast a resistive QVGA touchscreen display, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, an accelerometer, 3.5mm headset jack, 2MP camera, MicroSD card, and Android 1.6 (Donut).

Intrigued? If so, be ready to sit back and wait a spell. This one's not expected to ship until the middle of the year, by which time the look (and specs) might have changed.

Just about everything you could want to know about Alienware's M11x 'sorta-netbook' has been leaked to the Web, including when the 11.6-inch notebook is supposed to launch.

It looks as though the M11x will land first in Japan this Friday, February 5th, and then in Malaysia sometime later this month. According to a leaked slide, Dell has decided to bump up the price from $799 to $899, putting the M11x further away from traditional netbook territory.

Not that there would be any mistaking the M11x with a traditional netbook. Rather than an Atom processor with integrated Intel or Nvidia Ion graphics, the M11x will come configured with either an Intel Pentium 1.3GHz chip or Core 2 Duo 1.3Ghz processor, and Nvidia's GT 335M graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, giving the notebook enough power to play 720p HD video

The M11x was originally scheduled to launch in the U.S. sometime this spring, but given that it's being released in Japan later this week, we wouldn't be surprised if Dell released it stateside much earlier.

Forget any preconceptions you may have about Apple's iPad, because it's not all fun and games, though that certainly helps. According to Forrester Research, the current talk of the tablet world has a good chance at catching on as a business tool for mobile professionals.

"This thing will take off among high net worth mobile pros," said Ted Schadler, an analyst with Forrester Research. "And IT should be okay with that, at least in non-regulated industries where the lack of application management and device control tools are not big issues. After all, iPad is really just a big iPhone."

It's worth noting that mobile professionals comprise 28 percent of the enterprise workforce, and it's these very individuals who are likely to be attracted to the iPad to use on the road as they travel from their company's headquarters to remote offices. In addition, Schadler believes some enterprise workers will opt to take their iPad in place of their work-sanctioned laptops.

The folks at Engadget noticed an interesting similarity in an FCC filing that Google made late last week. The filing included details for a new handset that supports 3G on WCDMA Bands I, II, and V, providing the capability to work on AT&T’s network.

The original Nexus One filing listed the FCC ID of the device as NM899100. The new filing had an ID of NM899110. The model ID on the device follows the same one-digit-off scheming. Since there is only a minor change in IDs, it is likely a variant device of the same model. All signs are pointing to a Nexus One that will work off of T-Mobile’s network and fully support 3G speeds.

Right now, you could chalk up $529 and get yourself a Nexus One that is unlocked, which will surely work on other networks. Downside is, that the 3G support within the handset only works with T-Mobile’s network so you're stuck in slow-mo.

It may have taken a long while for Apple to finally introduce the iPad, but now that it has, expect every other tech company to try and cash in on the tablet mania. Everyone except Acer, that is.

According to Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin, the always confident and frequently outspoken OEM isn't planning on tossing its hat into the tablet ring and going toe-to-toe with the iPad. Instead, Acer is content to focus on ultra-thin notebooks in 2010.

It's not that Acer couldn't build a tablet, says Lin, The issue, he says, is that such a product doesn't have a place in Acer's business model. Not only that, but Acer appears to have little interest in designing an online store similar to Apple's iTunes ecosystem to support a tablet device.

The big question then becomes, 'What kind of impact will the iPad and similar devices have on the ultra-thin notebook and netbook markets?' And the answer, according to Lin, is not very much, since they each target different consumer groups. Whether or not that's really the case, we'll find out as 2010 marches on.

Forget about over-the-top aesthetics and loud color schemes, MSI is having no part of it, at least not with the latest entries to its Classic series notebooks. Instead, MSI's new CX420 and CR420 keep it relatively simple with an "exclusive Cross-Hatch Color Film Print patterning" the company claims gives them a "fashionable appearance."

Looks aside, it's what's on the inside of these 14-inch notebooks that count, and it all begins with Intel's Core i5 platform. The CX420 also sports up to 4GB of DDR3 800 or 1066 memory, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, up to 500GB of HDD storage, a 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN, 6- or 9-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium

The CR420 boasts an almost identical spec sheet, except the built-in graphics share the frame buffer with system memory, and the onboard Ethernet LAN tops out at 10/100.

After yesterday's launch, it's hard not to associate the term 'tablet' with Apple's iPad. But if Apple thinks it's going to own the market outright, it better think again. We expect a deluge of tablet PCs to emerge this year and next, including a Tegra-based unit from MSI.

According to MSI sales director Sambora Chen, MSI's tablet will boast a 10-inch color touchscreen with Wi-Fi support. As is the trend, it will be a light-weight unit and ultra-thin, though it won't sacrifice netbook-like capabilities to achieve its portability.

As for the hardware inside, Chen says his company plans on launching different models to fill various market segments, but stopped short of giving any specifics.

Look for MSI to release it's first tablet in the second half of 2010 for $500, the same price as Apple's entry-level iPad.

With the announcement of its Wind U135 'Special Edition Netbook' line, MSI and its entourage of ultraportables arrive fashionably late to the Pine Trail party. 'Special,' in this case, probably refers to the U135's "stylish color film printed case," which MSI claims prevents smudging.

The rest of the U135 is like just about every other Pine Trail netbook we've seen to date. Flying in the Wind is an Intel Atom N450 processor, along with Intel GMA3150 graphics, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB or 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n, 1.3MP webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, 3-cell or 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Starter.

MSI also decked out the U135 series with its now familiar ECO Engine Technology. Exclusive to MSI, this power saving tech allows the user to switch between 5 different power modes -- Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Document, and Turbo Battery -- to extend the life of the battery.

If you're a Nexus One owner struggling with 3G connectivity problems, hang tight, because a fix is on the way, Google said on Monday.

"Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users," a Google employee named Ivar said in a Google Nexus One support forum. "We are testing this fix now, initial results are positive, and if everything progresses as planned, we will provide an over-the-air software update to your phone in the next week or so."

Ivar was quick to caution, however, that the fix won't address all 3G problems users have reported having, especially those that are the result of "being on the edge or outside of 3G coverage, which a product fix cannot address."

Just a couple of years ago, few would have believed that Google would soon become a major force in the mobile OS market. But that's exactly what has happened since the launch of the Android platform in late 2008, and there's been no sign of the mobile OS slowing down. On the contrary, IDC says Android is on track to become the No. 2 mobile OS by 2013.

"Mobile operating systems have become the key ingredient in the highly competitive mobile device market. Although the overall look and feel of the device will still play an important role in the buying process, the wrong choice of operating system coupled with an awkward user interface can mean the difference between success and failure," says Stephen D. Drake, vice president, Mobility and Telecom.

We're still waiting for that must-have Android device, but even though there doesn't yet exist an Android-powered handset we can't live without, there are several we could live with. And by 2013, there will be some 68 million Android-powered units in the wild, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 150 percent, IDC says.